Parallels releases Desktop for Mac 3.0 into the wild

The next major version of the popular virtualization app, Parallels Desktop, …

Parallels officially released its Desktop for Mac 3.0 today, which has 50+ new features over the previous version of Parallels. Of course, as we already know, the newest version of Parallels has support for 3D graphics, including both OpenGL and DirectX support. And of course, we're also well aware that 3D graphics support is one of the most-anticipated features; the company brags that users can play all of their favorite games now, ranging from Quake to Half Life 2 to WoW.

But Parallels 3.0 also comes with some other cool stuff, such as SmartSelect. As we wrote before, SmartSelect basically lets you set a Windows app as the default application for certain file types on the Mac (and vice versa). Parallels director of comunications Ben Rudolph told Ars that SmartSelect is one of his favorite features: "Now I can use the Windows apps that I love, without having to go through the extra step of dragging a file over to Windows. I just double click and go. And being able to click a mailto in Windows and have it open in Apple Mail? Makes my day a whole lot smoother!"

Snapshots is another major feature in version 3.0 that has gotten some buzz, especially from people who are used to having to roll back machines for one reason or another. "Snapshots has already saved my proverbial bacon," Ben told us. "Last weekend i tried some beta software that resulted in a nasty bluescreen. I went back to my snapshot and erased the error like it never happened. Made what would have been a very painful weekend into a minor blip."

Other features include support for Vista installs under Boot Camp, a security manager, and Parallels Explorer. Parallels 3.0 is available for $79.99 with a special deal that if you buy two copies, the second is only $49.99. There is, as always, a free trial available if you want to play first and buy later. Happy virtualizing!